Suicide Squad NON SPOILERS - 3 Stars

Ok I went into this movie with very mixed emotions. Since the first trailer was released in January, I had anticipated this movie being the first big DC movie universe success. The trailer had a very 90s music video fun colorful vibe to it without explaining to much about the plot. It was a very different approach than Man of Steel or Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. It was feeling more like Marvel's approach to Guardians of the Galaxy. A fun way to introduce the audience to new characters that they have never seen before. I was very disappointed to hear the early reviews of this film going into it. Most critics were downing the film which started to give me low expectations. But then the day before I saw the film, there were a few positive reviews that changed my mind a little. So i changed my tune and went in with an open mind and i actually liked it. I had a good time watching this film and it redeemed itself a little from the brooding Batman vs Superman. Actually it was a much needed improvement over Batman vs Superman. However that's not to say it was without it's flaws. The good points for me kinda out ways the bad. I loved most of the characters of this film. Deadshot was the standout character for me. Will Smith was very sarcastically funny and nailed the jokes on point while also being a strong marksman. Other standouts for me were Diablo, Killer Croc and Amanda Waller. Diablo's backstory was very unique and interesting. Killer Croc's look and voice were very well designed. Amanda Waller was played well by Viola Davis. She wasn't as evil or scary as I wanted her to be but still worked for me. There were some mediocre characters like Harley Quinn and The Enchantress. Harley Quinn wasn't a strong enough character to me. Her quips are funny but that's about it. In the comics there are a couple iterations of Harley Quinn and I'm more into the jester style of that character that was in the Batman animated series. She's a very crazy villain and can be just as sinister to the Joker as much as he can be to her. She felt more like a submissive character to the Joker in this movie. The characters that didn't work for me or I didn't get any enjoyment out of were The Joker (surprisingly), Captain Boomerang, Katana and last but not least Batman. The Joker character believe it or not was just too psychotic for me. This version of the Joker wasn't funny even in a sarcastic way. The relationship between The Joker and Harley Quinn just felt really flat. They honestly could have left the Joker out of the movie entirely. Well add him in a little to establish the backstory of Harley Quinn but that's all you need. Captain Boomerang was very dull and it was hard for me to understand his accent. As you mentioned, Katana didn't even deliver any lines to the other team members. Batman wasn't needed in this film either. The only reason why he was here is to tie in this film to the DC universe for audience members who don't know these characters. It's the same reason why they kept saying the word Superman about a dozen times in this movie. The villain role played by Enchantress was very unmotivated and basically had the same plan as all the other villains in superhero films. Let's try to take over the world but we don't actually know why but let's do it from a tall skyscraper. I did like the CGI of the character and her design but her motivations were non existent. Stylistically this film is very pretty to look at with great costume design, CGI and cinematography. Also the soundtrack is fantastic. I think this is where the film hooked me. I'm really into music and this was basically one big giant music video. This film is a big mess. The plot is non existent, the editing is messy, and the writing/dialogue leaves much to be desired. The first 10 minute intro to the movie should have been cut and there are several backstory plots that could have been placed more up front than later in the film in particularly the scene in the bar where Diablo is telling what happened with his family. It slows the pace of the film down awkwardly during a big fight climax. But for some reason I liked the movie. I was having fun watching this movie. It was funny. Some of the characters I liked and it made it enjoyable for me. It reminds me a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy because the soundtrack fit the film perfectly just like this one did. The difference is that Guardian of the Galaxy had characters that you loved. The relationships with the characters made sense. The writing was great and the plot made sense. With this movie, you just have to not think about it so much which can be hard. If it wasn't for the stylistic art of this movie or the soundtrack or the likability of some of these characters I would probably be feeling the same way as you. Even with all it's problems, i had fun watching the movie.

There is an end credit scene but it's kind of a throwaway. It didn't do anything for me.

I'm going to give this movie 3 stars.

X-Men Apocalypse - 3 1/2 Stars

BEWARE PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE YOU ARE GOING TO BE SPOILED! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

X-Men Apocalypse comes to us from director Bryan Singer as the third film in this new rebooted/prequel series of the X-Men franchise. It tries to pick up from where we left off in X-Men Days of Future Past and also First Class at the same time. The X-Men now face a new villain by the name of Apocalypse (or En Sabah Nur) who is known as the first and most powerful mutant since the Egyptian days. He has been known to form a team of four horsemen who now will be known as Magneto, Storm, Psylocke & Angel. Professor Xavier has started teachings at the X-men school for the gifted and introduces us to some of the most beloved new characters, Nightwing, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Jubilee.

With the success of the first two reboot series films, I expected this film to be a little more exciting for me especially since you have such a great villain from the comics. The introduction of En Sabah Nur in the beginning was really great. The look of Apocalypse and small glimpse we get of the human form of En Sabah Nur I really liked. I would have liked to seen more of his backstory of the character and the relationship building between him and his new horsemen. Why the four horsemen worshiped him so much. Were they just under his mind manipulation? And ultimately I would have loved to seen his powers better established. He is supposed to be this big hulking ancient powerful mutant but his powers seemed a bit lackluster at times. After about the fourth time of his eyes rolling into the back of his head I got annoyed. I really enjoyed the character development of the new Cyclops. With his brother, Havok bringing him to the X-men school after he discovers his powers was a great character building move. They nailed the Nightcrawler characters' look and personality from the comics. Quicksilver was still the standout character for me with his super speed and comedic role. His action scene was the showstopper for me. The addition of these youthful, fun and energetic mutants is what was needed for this new rebooted series. It brought me back to the 90's X-Men cartoon. I was very disappointed that we didn't get to see Jubilee's powers in this film. Storm was played very well by newcomer Alexandra Shipp. They kept her original comic book origin from Africa but again I would have liked to seen her backstory a little bit more. Olivia Munn as Psylocke was very disappointing. It's not that I think she is a great actress but the fact that she had mentioned to the press that she fought so hard to get extra fight scenes to establish this character but she literally had 3 lines in film and it all fell flat. She looked great in her costume but that's it. Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique is so not working for me anymore. I felt like she phoned in her performance and it really bothered me that she is still dealing with not wanting to be the Mystique character. We only see her for a few moments in the Mystique makeup and then she doesn't showcase off her powers. I guess in this movie her powers are to look like Jennifer Lawrence all the time. It was so annoying and I'm done with her. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy were meant to play Magneto and Professor Xavier respectively. They command such great presence and gravitas when you see and hear them in every scene. The backstory and character development of Magneto is something I could watch all day. However his struggle/anger with the passing of his wife and daughter are met without any real payoff. He expresses his anger with words instead of action which was really disappointing. He had so much anger and hate built up but ultimately to release that anger created a giant earthquake at the end. That was very unsettling to me. Once he turns back to the good side I expected him to really release that built up anger onto Apocalypse but it didn't really play out that well. 

Plot points in the film just feel empty to me. Their is no human element to this story at all. Once we see Apocalypse in the end trying to destroy the world, we don't get the connection to the human world. All we see is cars and buildings being ripped to shreds from an empty world. There is one shot of the government saying basically that the mutants are creating a massive earthquake but that's it. It's like a world with nothing but a handful of mutants fighting each other. The ending battle between the mutants was also very like one-two steps for me. One person throws a car at the group and then dodge out of the way. Then someone steps up next to slam someone through a wall. In the meantime you have Magneto just twirling around some metal in the air. Just flat and boring. The highlight of that scene was the powerful appearance of Jean Grey and the glimpse of the Dark Phoenix. The 15 minute Wolverine scene was totally useless and could have been cut from the film. It's totally setup to let the audience know that they are working on a new Wolverine sequel but most of the audience knows that. There was a huge applause when he first shows up but I wonder if most of the audience regretted it once they realized it didn't add anything to the story.

There are some really great things about this film in the first half but the second just falls off. The character development direction in the first half is really great. The action sequences and the story lines towards the end are just very off putting. New characters are added, destruction is happening, yet it just feels kind of oddly bland. The most fun I had during this film was being in the Xavier school. It really gives you the feeling of being their as a student and I loved it. The money shot other than the Quicksilver action scene was the very last frame of the new X-men in their new costumes as they are beginning to train against the Sentinels. The costume designs were ripped right from the pages of the comics. At one point in the movie, Jean Grey says "you know the third film is always the worst". Well I guess she was right. It's not the worst of the X-Men franchise it just isn't the best of this new trilogy.

I would give it 3 1/2 Stars. It's good popcorn with butter just not the good kind of butter.

Captain America Civil War - 4 1/2 Stars

BEWARE PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE YOU ARE GOING TO BE SPOILED! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

WOW what an epic superhero movie. By far this is my favorite Marvel "team" superhero film. It just knocked Avengers down to number 2 for me. While this is ultimately a Captain America movie, this is Avengers 3 before the real Avengers 3 (Infinity War) happens. The fight scenes, the choreography, the acting, the character development, the set pieces. Wooooo!!!

Okay let's just get the plot of the film out of the way. Following the actions of what happens in Avengers Age of Ultron and previous films, the government wants to pass a bill (The Sakovia Accords known as the Registration Act) to make the Avengers and superheroes accountable for their actions when there is collateral damage or drastic casualties. The law divides the team of Avengers and causes conflict within the superheroes. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who's side are you on? The two who are mainly at strong disagreement are Captain America and Iron Man. Along with the splitting of the Avengers this brings in new characters Black Panther played by Chadwick Boseman, Spider-man played by Tom Holland and a returning Winter Solider played by Sebastian Stan.

For me I’ve always wanted to see what it would happen if a group of superheroes came to blows. In a film could the director showcase and manage each of the characters' strengths? Yes, yes they can. The power potential for each character in this film was demonstrated to the max. Scarlet Witch was so powerful and showcased some skills that I didn’t even know she had. Ant-Man finally grew into Giant Man and it fit in perfectly in that particular scene with the other Avengers. Ant-Man's excitement to join with Captain America was so funny that it reminded me why I loved his solo film last year. Falcon’s new wings and his remote controlled falcon were so cool!! The chase scene with The Winter Solider, Black Panther and Captain America was so fun. The audience and myself made a huge gasp when The Winter Solider pulled the motorcycle from the guy driving in order to continue the getaway from Black Panther and Captain America. The love relationship building with Scarlet Witch and Vision was humanly natural. Vision trying to fit into the human world by developing feelings for her and even dressing in human clothes was great and representative to the love story they have in the comics. Iron Man and Captain America fought each other basically almost to the death. The splash pages were ripped right from the comics!! The shot of Iron Man blasting his repulser ray into Captain America’s shield had me so giddy. To me that was better than the splash page of the two teams battling at the airport. At one point I thought for sure Cap or Iron Man was going to die at the hands of the other. And lastly but not least, Black Panther and Spider-man stole the show, especially Black Panther for me.

Look I have been a longtime Spider-man fan and I was hoping that they would finally get him right in a film and thankfully now that they loaned him to Marvel, they have done him justice. His age is appropriate. He has a reason to team up with Avengers. His spunk is on point even within battle. His skills are unmatched. And he’s just down right a fun kid who is trying to make something out of the new powers he has discovered. During the airport battle scene when he starts to fight the Winter Solider and catches his metal arm,  looks and says “Hey you have a metal arm, how cool.” I was like done!! They nailed him!! It was so much fun to watch him in action. The costume was great and they even gave him the Ditko eyes. The squints and sounds that it makes are giving you emotion through his eyes just like in the comics!!! Perfect! Oh and no origin story. Not needed!! A little scene with Tony Stark to introduce him to the audience and then we have Spider-man. Not Spider-boy. So excited to see his standalone film next year.

Now back to Black Panther. KING OF WAKANDA!!! Man when he walked onto the scene and spoke for the first time, I got chills. From the comics that I’ve read of Black Panther in my mind that is what he sounds like. His voice just commands the role of Prince and now King of Wakanda. Not like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America. His stature just is so strong and bold. His movements are so quick and silent like a cat. I’m a dog lover but now I might have to change my ideals of felines. There were moments when he would jump off of a building and land and you heard nothing from his feet. I’m like damn!! Is he walking on air? His costume was so cool as well. I have the same comment with Black Panther as Spider-man. Not really needing an origin story but boom here he is fighting with and against the Avengers. It’s funny because himself and Spider-man were only in the film probably for about 15 minutes each but it felt like so much more because they were so memorable.

During the film I was always on Captain America’s side. I couldn’t imagine a world where the superheroes we need to protect us from the bigger threat had to be policed by the government. The government telling the superheroes when and where they could fight crime. Do they know the right time for them to be fighting crime? Captain America is always going to take the noble and citizen like approach to every person. Iron Man is just shooting first and asking questions later to me. The struggle Captain America has with protecting his friend Bucky who is being controlled by Hydra is real. He will always and forever be his friend and he will do anything to make sure people see the good in him.

The villain (Baron Zemo) wasn’t really pronounced enough in this film for me. But it was okay because the real struggle was supposed to between the Avengers. I believe if Marvel would have made the villain a more prominent focus then would have lost sight of the real Civil War. Plus what we know about previous Marvel films is that the villains are usually lackluster in their character development anyways. Red Skull and Loki have been the only exceptions. The other issue that I had with the film was a non-conclusive ending about the Sokovia Accords. Was the act officially instituted into the government? Is Captain America now AWOL? Is the government now searching for Captain America because he is a fugitive? Is Iron Man still on the government’s side? Which I guess that answer is there but you don't know for sure because he does put General Ross on hold when he answers the phone in the end scene.

I guess with those questions unanswered it’s a good way to bring the team back together to fight Thanos in Infinity War. It is a two-part film so maybe the first part is to decide if the team is going to join back together and also get the backstory/introduction to Thanos and the second part bringing the team back together and the final battle.

The film was fun, emotional (I gasped when Bucky’s arm was ripped off and when Cap was at the final battle with Iron Man), exciting, thought provoking and just everything I wanted in a superhero movie. Marvel is still on the right track providing us with these awesome superhero films. Some may think they are getting superhero fatigue but I'm not.

4 1/2 Stars only because the villain part bothered me.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - 2 1/2 Stars

BEWARE PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE YOU ARE GOING TO BE SPOILED! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Dawn of Justice draws the audience into this dark cinematic DC Universe. Continuing the dark tone set in Man of Steel.  Very serious and dark. Oh Zack Synder.

Gritty and in some case more realistic than the Marvel Universe, we are introduced to a Gotham and Metropolis feeling the aftermath from the battle between Superman and General Zod which caused catastrophic damage. We first meet a grown Bruce Wayne as he rushes towards the battle. Fast-forward 18 months and Bruce Wayne is determined to find a weapon or a weakness against this alien (Superman) who he feels will eventually turn against humans. At the same time, reporter Clark Kent is determined to expose the Batman for the vigilante he is. 

Along with that we have Lex Luthor determined to defeat both heroes and prove his might and sets up the “biggest gladiator match,” and unleash the Kryptonian monster Doomsday.

I think that about sums up the plot. Okay now because I didn't like this film that much, I will just start with that. Here is the thing that doesn't work for me with these DC films - aside from the “Dark Knight” series, they are just not fun to watch. I don't want to feel depressed or darkness when watching superheros. I'm not saying that it needs to be silly comedy, back to the 1960’s version of Batman, but let me feel some type of hope that they have a bit of a happy life. Was the sun shining at all during this film? Were we just dealing with nighttime scenes the whole time? This is my main gripe with this Superman character. These heroes are supposed to be light and dark. Superman is the character of reason, justice and hope - filled with color and light. Batman lives in a cave and has a vigilante dark side to him - fight first and ask questions later. This Batman was much more violent than Christian Bale's Batman. But Superman geez… smile a little more when you are saving humans or something.

The fight between them was good. I loved the Easter egg nods to the pages ripped right from the “Dark Knight Returns” graphic novel. The actual fight the best part for me. I even liked the fight with Doomsday. However, I didn't like the look of Doomsday - a giant turd-looking thing. But I will say there was a major plot hole to me during that fight. Why is it that Superman can't swim out of the water when he's next to the kryptonian spear yet minutes later he can fly with it into the chest of Doomsday? Parts of the movie shines a light on the DC universe to come. I saw a glimpse of sun rays on a very, very dark cloudy day. I liked the teases of the characters to come, however they have to make it brighter for the Justice League film to work. There needs to be more light in general - The Flash is bright, Aquaman is bright, even Cyborg is bright. Brighten it up damn it. However I don’t yet have faith they will be able to succeed. We will find out next year with the solo Wonder Woman film. Speaking of which was a lot better than I thought she was going to be. She was strong. A goddess and looked good in her costume. She was the only one who could hurt the Doomsday monster without the aid of kryptonite. I loved how electric guitar ripped into the soundtrack as soon as she joined the fight, and suddenly there was a change in the whole movie. Unfortunately, this change didn’t happen until the last 20 minutes of a 150 hour movie. The pacing and editing of the film were completely disjointed. Dream sequence after dream sequence after dream sequence. You want to confuse someone? Good job! The only dream sequence that I did like was the flash forward to The Flash talking to Bruce. That was cool!

One good aspect of the film to me (and this might sound morbid) was the death of Superman. I told myself that if Doomsday is in this film for more than five minutes then Superman is going to die. That's how it happens in the comics and that's how it happens in the film. However I don't necessarily like that he died in the second film of this universe. It's a little too early. He should have died in Justice League. You should feel some type of sadness when a major character dies in a film but I felt very little. I was just happy that they didn't make him invincible to Doomsday but again it was a mistake to do it this early in the DC universe. Give the audience enough time to build a relationship with the characters in the universe before you kill one of them off. Do you think it would have been more of an impact if they killed Iron Man off in the second Iron Man film? Yes it would because the audience built a relationship that they loved with Iron Man in the first film. Not many people have come to like this new Superman yet. He was still learning his powers and learn to care for humans. Another note is that I feel the Superman and Clark Kent characters need to be more defined - they need to be two individual characters. The audience has always said that Clark is basically Superman with glasses. Come on! Don't prove their argument to be true. Make them different! The comics can do that with making Clark Kent clumsy. There is no other difference here! Lois and Clark lacked chemistry in the last movie and even less in this one. Lois exemplifies the damsel in distress. BUT THAT'S NOT LOIS AT ALL!! If they actually killed Lois I wouldn't have even cared.

Now on to Lex Luthor. How many times did I cringe when he was speaking? I thought he was the most annoying character of the film. His motivations were so unclear and his personality was too close to a psychotic Joker with his little puns and jokes. Weird and horrible! One last peeve, Superman and Batman movies should be superhero films that the whole family can see. I'm not saying campy, but something that kids can look up to as justice holders. This is not a film that you can take a child to see and that is kinda depressing. A moment I will never forget is when I saw The Avengers movie for the second time and this kid next to me died with laughter so hard when Hulk grabbed Loki and smashed him into the ground. The joy in that kids voice is what i'm talking about.

2 1/2 Stars. Just disappointing for a film that I've been anticipating for so long. It just wasn't fun to me. Besides the Dark Knight trilogy, I've struggled so hard to like these DC films, but end up folding my arms questioning why it has to be so hard to make a good DC film. If they are trying to make these films fit today’s world and society, they must see the world different than me. I try to see the good in the world. Yes, the world is messed up now-a-days - with the most recent tragedy in Brussels - but it's not like that all the time.